Isn’t there an old sports axiom that states games are won or lost before you ever take the field?  Well, at least some form of that saying.  JustSell.com lists a handful of self-defeating thoughts from the sales world (email newsletter – sorry, no link).

Here they are:

• Defeatist (accepting, expecting, or being resigned to defeat)
• Cynical (contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives)
• Vindictive (seeking revenge)
• Blame/ Fault (who cares? what are we going to do now?)
• Wishful (do what you can to influence the deal and keep moving)
• Self-pity (get over yourself… complain less… especially to yourself)
• Worrisome (it won’t help, costs time, and can drag you down)
• Jealous (want it? earn it)
• Pre-argumentative (the imaginary argument you have to prepare yourself for the argument that may never happen)
• Post-argumentative (the imaginary argument you have where you’re quicker than you were in the actual argument)
• Procrastinatory (if you’re going to procrastinate, you might as well do something fun instead of thinking about how bad it is that you’re procrastinating… dummy)

I find that fourth one (blame/fault) to be especially common in sales…and quite detrimental.

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This economy is tough for everyone but especially for salespeople.  Money is tight, companies are delaying decisions and jobs are on the line.  Yet, through it all sales must continue…and they do.

One, well, macabre thought through this time is that this economy is a tool that separates the order takers from the closers.  If you think about it, the salespeople who have rested on a strong territory, one large customer or golden leads are now having to face a prospecting situation.  For some this is a nightmare of slasher movie proportions.

I have seen a company’s perception of a “strong” salesperson change dramatically during similar economic times.  This downturn is no exception.  You may find that some of your strongest, most-skilled salespeople are not necessarily the ones at the very top of your revenue spreadsheet.

This is a good time to take an inventory of your current team and assess their strengths and weaknesses.  I would even go so far as to suggest assessments, but only if delivered in the right manner.  In this economy, assessments to salespeople spell trouble in their world.  If used correctly, they can provide the sales manager with a path for getting the most out of his or her team.

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One of the reasons we are so adamant about assessing sales candidates is to know what motivates and rewards the person.  Once identified, these factors can be explored during a face-to-face interview.  There is one reward that requires an in-depth discussion with any sales candidate who possesses it – Status & Recognition.

This salesperson is rewarded by prestige, social acknowledgement and tangible trophies.  Let me be clear – this is a strong reward structure for a salesperson.  However, when it is over-amplified, it becomes a detriment.

I have a friend in sales who has this issue.  He is incredibly knowledgeable about his complex product line.  He speaks about it on an engineering level even though he is not an engineer.  Unfortunately, his sales have plummeted over the past 3 months.

The issue is this – he craves the prospect’s recognition of his knowledge more than closing the deal.  For him it is getting his personal needs met in the marketplace.  This approach is fatal in sales.

He recently told me a story of how one of his customers once told him he could be a consultant in this industry.  You should have seen how he lit up as he recalled that discussion.  Unfortunately, that customer unexpectedly dropped from the revenue report and this salesperson has not done the sales work necessary to foresee it.

If you have been in sales for any length of time, you realize that the salespeople who are successful do not go into the marketplace to get their emotional needs met.  They are playing a role – salesperson.  It’s not personal.  It’s not a reflection on them.  It is a job that requires certain behaviors to be successful.  They are going to face rejection every day so they better be able to emotionally detach from the role.  It is not a reflection on who they are as a person.  This is critical when hiring salespeople.

The conventional wisdom is that hiring industry experts is the best approach for salespeople.  It isn’t.  You probably have plenty of expertise in your company today.  If not, go hire engineers.  When hiring a salesperson, the better course of action is to hire one who can sell.  Sales ability is not synonymous with industry experience.  Assess your candidates, know what rewards them and pursue questions that reveal their sales ability.

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I was out all yesterday helping the medical clinic where my wife works move into a new facility.  I am a wannebe geek so I moved their small computer network for them and installed a new computer for the owner.  The interesting item I observed was the work ethic of the people involved.

I like to say that some times you just don’t need an assessment.  I think moving may be one of those times.  To be blunt, moving blows no matter how you look at it.  It is disruptive, tiring, laborious and messy.

However, one thing you can clearly observe is the work ethic of a person.  At one end of the spectrum, I observed people taking calls, scheduling appointments and selling products while they used moving boxes as their desk.  At the other end, some people didn’t even show up.  Needless to say, I was shocked.

No matter what the talent level of the employee, effort is the greater assessment.

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As you have probably ascertained, we are strong proponents of hiring for ability/potential that matches your sales as opposed to tenured experience in your industry.  Naturally, this article – The Myth of Experience – from Managesmarter.com is right up our alley.

Please allow me to reference an analogy from later in the article:

Don’t fall into the myth of relying upon experience. Instead look for potential. That’s why there is always an image of flowers on a package of seeds. We don’t really care what the seeds look like. We want to know what they will become.

I like that characterization even though I am not one to use “potential”…I prefer abilities and potential. 

The author jumps right into it with a paragraph we could have written:

The truth is, we all have a tendency to think of experience in a way that is entirely too limiting. What we should be looking for is not direct experience but transferable skills. It is not whether someone has sold the same product or service before, but what have they carried with them:

• Are they able to initiate relationships easily?
• Can they get a client to open up?
• Do they know how to identify and solve problems?

These are some of the transferable skills that can take an individual successfully from one position to another—and even from one career to another.

Transferable skills are the key to hiring salespeople.  The best way to spot these skills is to profile your sale first, then find salespeople with skills that match up well to your sale.

And finally, a suggestion that we support:

An in-depth personality profile can provide the insights you need into whether an applicant has the potential you are looking for. Is it their empathy? Their persuasiveness? Their perseverance? Their ability to connect with people in a very real way? The capacity to quickly analyze problems and arrive at solutions?
Discover that. Then look for applicants who have those same qualities. That’s the potential you’re looking for.

In sales, it is important to go into skills, motivations and abilities since personality is primarily a style issue.  Nonetheless, this is an excellent article and one I strongly recommend you read.

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Good article here from Salesopedia.com titled Reject Me, Please.  Handling rejection just may be the most important trait of any strong salesperson.  Rejection is the key differentiation between sales and all other positions.  Salespeople have to be able to handle this topic well.

Excellent sales people realize it’s about the products and service, and not them. They may have represented the product poorly and answered questions about the services ineptly, but nonetheless, the opposition is about what’s being sold, not the seller. This ability to distinguish between the purveyor and the purveyed I call Separation Clarity.

Well stated and I am now a fan of the phrase “separation clarity.”  I tend to tell salespeople that sales is what you do, it is not who you are – almost like an actor in a play.

Here is the reason why this separation is difficult for many:

Successful salespeople have support networks. They do not rely on random others’ feedback, or approval, or validation, or even communication. They know who they are and are bolstered by their loved ones, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances.
      Personally, I’ve seen very few top salespeople who don’t have great loves in their life, or close friends, or family of some kind. Thus, this is the Appropriate Love Factor. You don’t need your prospect, client, or buyer to love you.

Exactly.  Too often salespeople confuse rapport with relationship.  The need is to establish rapport with the prospect and earn their respect.  It is not wise to target a personal relationship with a prospect since that approach is what leads to the difficulty in handling rejection.

Notice I wrote “prospect.”  Close relationships can develop with customers over time, but that should not be the salesperson’s motivation.

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Derrick wrote a series on sales traits last year which transcends sales and applies to everyone.  I was catching up on my RSS reader from the Labor Day weekend and came across this perfect example to illustrate the lack of Attention to Detail.  According to this post from US News & World Report, employees of media agency Carat learned about a planned layoff by management through an email.  Because someone did not have an abundance of the attention to detail trait, an email meant strictly for management accidentally went out to everyone in the company.

This is why we stress the use of assessments to ”x-ray” a person’s hidden abilities and talents, or lack thereof.  Unfortunately these weaknesses often come to the surface in situations similar to the aforementioned example.  I’m sure that the Carat executives would like to have known if this employee had a natural trait for attention to detail before handing this task off to them.

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Persuasion is a key ability of any successful salespeople.  Think of the worst car salesperson or door-to-door salesperson you have encountered and you will know why this ability is so critical to success.  CNNMoney.com’s article – How persuasive are you? – interviews an individual who runs the Persuasion Institute who brought up this fine point:

Let’s take, for instance, how we handle objections, whether from a customer or some other audience, such as a boss we’re asking for a raise. Early on in life, we learn to perceive objections as opposition, so we get defensive. An unskilled persuader, often without realizing it, will show tension, uneasiness, or irritation when someone raises an objection, usually because the objection or concern stirs up the persuader’s own insecurities: “Aren’t I doing a good enough job explaining this? Didn’t I go over that already?” This way of thinking will only make matters worse.

By contrast, great persuaders who have learned new persuasion skills know how to welcome objections. Instead of seeing them as opposition, these persuaders see objections as a natural, and valuable, part of the process. They use their audience’s concerns as a way to open a dialogue, a chance to exchange ideas and discover new areas of common ground. Truly great persuaders may cut to the chase by addressing an objection before it’s even been voiced, just to get that communications ball rolling.

I say that is a fine point in that how salespeople handle rejection is key to their success.  We often discuss what traits are most important in sales and I think I would vote for handling rejection.  I think it is, in simple terms, the key differentiator between high-performance sales and mediocrity.

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Selling Power’s Hiring Newsletter takes a look at assessments used in the hiring process.  This is a topic near and dear to our hearts in that we assess sales candidates with online tests.  One paragraph jumped out (emphasis mine):

According to Whittle, the average test runs around $200, but there were some tests that tacked on extra costs for interpretation up to $600 to $900 extra. Her company usually conducts the tests after at least two behavioral interviews to save time and costs. However, Whittle reminds us – the cost of testing is nothing compared to the cost of a bad hire. “We conduct the tests to validate what we’ve seen during the interview process,” explains Whittle.

I understand this approach, but I don’t agree with it.  Here has been my experience – hiring managers will doubt the test results as opposed to their “gut instinct.”  If you are two interviews into the process with a candidate, I guarantee someone has bonded with the candidate.  This is not a bad thing, but what if the assessment comes back with information that indicates the candidate would be a risky, or even bad hire?

This is the problem – the hiring manager has committed to the candidate at some level.  If the hiring manager has enough power, they will still hire the candidate in spite of the assessment results.

We assess candidates after a successful phone interview.  This provides a detailed view of the candidate’s abilities, motivations, drive and so forth.  The results also provide the topics for discussion during the initial in-person interview.  This data makes that first interview far more revealing than simply probing for unknown weaknesses with generic questions.

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I’ve been dealing with many different sales candidates of late and one thing that is starting to stand out – a candidate’s resourcefulness.  This trait comes shining through on some candidates and is little more than a dull luster on others.  The less resourceful a salesperson, the more wary you should be in considering their candidacy.

This trait has always been important in sales.  Resourcefulness feeds networking, prospecting, qualifying and competitive knowledge.  Recently I have encountered a couple of candidates who just plain lack this ability.

The lack of resourcefulness shows up in not finding email addresses or cell phone numbers.  One salesperson wasn’t able to recall the position for which he was applying (this makes for an arduous phone screen).  Another salesperson wasn’t able to research new leads due to ineptitude using online tools.

These shortcomings are severe weaknesses in the information age.  I’m not sure how to measure this ability though we can get close to it with our assessments (practical thinking and using common sense).  More than likely, this ability has to be experienced in the hiring process so pay close attention during the initial stages of sourcing sales candidates.

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